Wednesday morning headlines

Big drop for stocks: Ouch, the Dow is down about 240 points after two hours of trading. More gloomy economic news is casting a shadow on everything.

New skyscrapers for Century City?: The developer who wanted to tear down the Century Plaza - and then relented after a storm of protest - is back with a plan that would feature two 46-story towers filled with offices and condos. From the LAT:

If approved by city officials, the addition would be one of the largest real estate developments on the Westside in decades, though it's likely to face resistance from nearby residents weary of traffic congestion and construction in their neighborhoods. Demand for condominiums and offices plummeted during the recession and has yet to recover. But Rosenfeld said the market was likely to be on the upswing by the time the project is completed.

State workers to stage protest: They'll be demonstrating outside theaters during the Friday opening of "The Expendables," which features a cameo by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. CA employees are not happy about having to take unpaid leave and have been fighting it in the courts. From the NYT:

A demonstration on Aug. 3 during the premiere of "The Expendables" at Grauman's Chinese Theater in Hollywood forced Mr. Schwarzenegger to skip the red carpet and enter the building from the back, the service workers said. The governor's spokesman, Aaron McLear, said Mr. Schwarzenegger often enters buildings from the back as a security measure. Mr. McLear said he had not heard of any demonstrations against the movie, but said that the state workers "are certainly free to do whatever they want."

Ethics panel wimps out on freebies; City commission is split on whether to tighten the rules regulating free tickets received by elected officials. This follows up on the mayor's practice of accepting freebies. From the LAT:

Commissioner Nedra Jenkins, who was named to the panel by former City Controller Laura Chick, said she feared that tighter regulation of gifts would limit the ability of elected officials to meet the public outside of City Hall. Jenkins, an attorney for Los Angeles County government, said she joined the commission specifically because she was introduced to Chick at an outside event.

Disney scores: The Mouse House reports a big jump in third-quarter earnings, helped by the box-office success of "Alice in Wonderland," "Iron Man 2" and "Toy Story 3." (FT)

Driver error tied to crashes: Many of the Toyota smack-ups that were connected to unintended acceleration had drivers failing to apply the brakes. Makes a difference. From Bloomberg:

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration also saw no evidence of electronics-related causes for the accidents in reviewing the vehicle recorders, known as black boxes, the agency said yesterday in the interim report to lawmakers. Toyota has said there's no evidence of flaws in electronic controls on its vehicles and that motorists in some cases confused the accelerator and brake pedals.

California is king of gaming: The state is home to four out of 10 jobs in the industry, by far the largest share. Also, California workers are paid more than their counterparts in the rest of the nation. (LAT)

Wells Fargo Malibu house sold: The two-story beach house was lost to foreclosure (former owners were victims of the Madoff scam). When it was in the hands of Wells Fargo, a bank executive used it to give parties. Purchase price was $14.95 million, $6.5 million less than the original asking price. (LAT)

Boeing workers file labor charges: They allege that their union, the United Aerospace Workers, punished them for crossing a picket line during a month-long strike at the C-17 plant. (Press-Telegram)

More business for C-17 plant: The Indian air force plans to purchase six more of the cargo planes. The additional orders mean that the Long Beach plant could be operating well past the scheduled 2013 closure date. (Press-Telegram)

How bad are CNN's numbers?: So bad that on Monday CNBC brought in more viewers - at night, when the markets weren't even open. (Business Insider)